Some Sarkozy Lost in Translation

Photo altered to reduce president's love handles
By Heather McPherson,  Newser User
Posted Aug 22, 2007 8:01 PM CDT
Some Sarkozy Lost in Translation
French President Nicolas Sarkozy points toward a photographers boat on Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, N.H., Sunday, Aug. 5, 2007. Sarkozy was objecting to photographers taking pictures of him while on vacation. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)   (Associated Press)

The French president’s “love handles” got a makeover this week when Paris Match Photoshopped them down to size in pics from his US holiday. An otherwise manly bare-chested shot of Sarkozy canoeing with his son shows his stomach to be distinctly slimmer than in Reuter’s original photo. Another French mag amused its readership this week with a before-and-after comparison.

The BBC gives no motive for the magazine’s maneuver other than to improve Sarkozy's physique; Paris Match said his seating position in the canoe emphasized his 52-year-old abdominal bulge. Editors claimed they first tried to adjust only the photo's lighting, but "the correction was exaggerated during the printing process,” they told rival weekly L'Express. (More Nicolas Sarkozy stories.)

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